Learning about Harry

Molly Weasley watched the scene before her, smiling. Out of the window she could see her three oldest sons in the garden. Percy was reading a Muggle book. She beamed at him proudly, he seemed to have taken a shine to reading and work and he was only eight. Bill and Charlie, her two oldest, were playing on toy broomsticks and making her nervous. She looked in front of her, on the living room rug sat her six year old twins, Fred and George. Their heads were bent in conversation; Molly didn’t even want to think what they were plotting. She could already tell that she was going to have a lot of trouble from them. Her two youngest, four year old Ron and her only daughter, Ginny, who was three, were sitting together, a little way apart from the twins, playing with Charlie’s old figurines.

Presently, Ginny stood up and walked over to her mother, climbing on her lap. She took her thumb out of her mouth to say; “Mum, who’s Harry Potter?”

“Who told you about him dear?”

“Charlie, he says Harry Potter’s special. Why’s he special Mum?”

Ron had come over and sat on the sofa next to his mother. He was too old for laps. He sat quietly waiting for his mother to answer the question. Molly Weasley smiled; she’d forgotten she’d never told them the story, as parts of it were rather horrible. The twins stopped talking and looked up, they liked this story.

“Once upon a time,” she began. Ginny squirmed with pleasure, she liked once upon a time stories. “Once upon a time there was a wizard called... Lord Voldemort.”

The twins gasped at hearing their mother say the name.

“He was a very bad wizard and you must never say the name, you must call him You-Know Who, or He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.”

“Why?” asked Ginny.

“Because he was a bad wizard Ginny.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know dear. Anyway, the bad wizard, You-Know-Who...”

“Lord Voldemort?”

“Yes, and don’t say the name Ron, it’s naughty.”

The twins laughed at their younger brother and edged closer to their mother to listen to the story.

“You-Know-Who was not very nice...”

“Did he pull people hair?” asked Ginny sympathetically, “because Fred was doing that to me today.”

“Fred!” Molly Weasley cried, turning on her son.

“Hey, don’t look at me, he’s Fred,”

“No I’m not,” said the other twin grinning.

Each twin pointed to the other and said, “he is” at the same time.

Their mother frowned. They did this to deliberately confuse her. She decided to continue with the story.

“Everyone was very sacred of him.”

“Was Dumbledore?” asked Ron, pleased with himself for remembering the name.

“Well, perhaps not as scared as most people, but a little bit, because You Know Who used to kill people,” she said.

Ron and Ginny’s eyes grew wide. “That is naughty,” said Ron.

“Very,” agreed his mother, “one day You-Know-Who decided to kill a family called the Potters.”

“Why?” asked Ron.

“I don’t know,” Molly sighed, “I just don’t know.”

“What happened?” Ginny pressed.

“You-Know-Who killed Harry Potter’s Dad, James Potter.”

Ginny’s lip trembled slightly and she buried her face in her mother’s arms declaring in a muffled voice that the story was “nasty”.

“And,” Ron said, eagerly.

“Then he killed Harry’s mum, Lily.”

Ginny gave a little moan. Molly sighed, they had to know. “After that, You-Know-Who wanted to kill Harry, but he couldn’t.”

“Why?” Ron asked breathlessly.

“No one knows dear, it is a great mystery. A miracle even. You-Know-Who had killed some very powerful grown up wizards but he couldn’t kill baby Harry. The little boy that had no one to protect him survived the bad wizard.”

“Is that why he’s special?” asked Ginny, emerging from her mother’s arms.

“Partly, Harry Potter is the Boy Who Lived, but Harry Potter did something else as well. When

You-Know-Who failed to kill Harry Potter, he vanished. He lost his powerful nasty magic. No one knows what happened to him.”

“What about Harry?” asked Ginny.

“Harry lives with Muggles now,” said her mother. Ginny wrinkled her nose; Muggles were strange. “He has a lightening bolt shaped scar on his forehead where You Know Who tried to kill him. He must be about Ron’s age now.”

“I expect he’s nicer than Ron,” Ginny decided. Ron stuck his tongue out at her.

“Do you think we’ll ever see him Mum?” asked Ron.

“Quite possibly dear but now it’s time for bed, all of you.”

They groaned, Fred and George, noting that their mother could not get up due to their sister on her lap, seized their chance and ran out into the garden. Molly Weasley frowned at their departing forms.

“Do you think he’s nice Mum?” asked Ron.

“I expect he’s very nice dear said Mrs Weasley, ruffling the red hair of the boy who would grow up to be Harry Potter’s best friend.

“Poor Harry,” Ginny said sadly, “having no parents.”

“Yes,” said her mother as she kissed the girl who would fall in love with the Boy Who Lived.

“Bed now,” she said, moving towards the garden to go and chase Fred and George.

As Ron and Ginny trundled up the stairs Ginny asked, “Do you think we’ll ever meet him?”

“’Spect so,” said Ron.